100 Days of Dice Compositions: Week 1-Thistle Be Fun!

 

This week kicked off a new 100 Day Project: 100 Days of Dice Composition. In one week, I started and finished a 12" x 12" composition inspired by a dice roll. Join me as I share the progress made each day and a reveal of the finished piece. 

Day 1/100: Finalize Game Plan/Pull Fabrics

An exciting start to my newest 100 Day Project: 100 Days of Dice Compositions. For this project, I'll be rolling the dice to determine a color palette and one of eight Design Guides from Art Quilt Collage book by Deborah Boschert. I share more about my goals and set up in a previous blog post. After I finalized my game plan, I rolled the dice to determine my weekly color and design assignment:

6=Purple Fabrics

1=Symmetrical Design Guide

Then I spent nearly 2 hours sorting, pulling, and editing down the purple fabric possibilities in effort to include a range of values and textures. These were all been backed with Pellon 805 Wonder Under fusible. Fabrics may be added to and/or subtracted from this mix once I start composing.

Day 2/100: Make Fabric, Finalize Layout, Layer, and Baste

Last night I kept waking up thinking about the fabrics I pulled for this first Dice Composition and was giddy with design ideas. In the afternoon I started to play with the symmetrical design guide to create my first composition. It was a very improvisational design process. I was so focused and in the moment that I totally forgot to take photos of my process. One of the fabrics pulled yesterday didn't provide enough contrast for use with the flower pot and was set aside for later use. Instead, a tongue depressor was used to apply lines of Purple Flash Color Shift acrylic paint onto black solid fabric. Two commercial green fabrics were pulled from my stash: a small polka dot for the background and a dark green solid to create stems, leaves, and a few accents.

In lieu of pins, small scraps of Wonder Under were used to fuse the quilt top onto the batting in preparation for quilting. Several spools of Wonderfil 8wt Perle Cotton were auditioned for adding hand embroidered details next.

Day 3/100: Hand Embroidery

This lovely Sue Spargo Perle Cotton made for an absolutely lovely evening of meditative hand stitching...

Day 4/100: More Hand Embroidery and Free-Motion Quilting

Adding more stitched details: hand embroidered french knots before moving over to the sewing machine to outline stitch and add free-motion quilted textures!

Day 5/100: More Free-Motion Quilting

Inspired by the spikey shapes, I chose my favorite zig zag meander for filling in the green background.

Day 6/100: Trim and Face Quilt

Now that the quilting was complete, I carefully trimmed it down to 12.5" x 12.5". I found this great commercial batik that had matching pinks and purples to fuse onto the back and cut strips for facing the quilt. I like to use Elmer's School Glue to baste the strips into place prior to hand stitching.

Day 7/100: Label and Blog

Thanks to @babkas_happy_place for her title suggestion which referenced thistles. That inspired me to title this quilt "Thistle Be Fun." I had so much fun creating this first finish in a series of Dice Compositions and hope that the others to follow will be just as much fun.

"Thistle Be Fun," Finishes 12" x 12"

Personal Critique:

I am so happy with this finished quilt! It definitely showcases the color purple with green accents providing the perfect complement. While I was inspired by a Symmetrical Design Guide, there is a bit of assymetry to add visual interest: ribbon waves, tilted spikey wings, and different size and number of flowers. I love the movement created by the ribbon and flowers. The Color Shift metallic paints used in both the flowers and vase provide a lovely sparkle when viewed up close (or in this short video). A variety of textures are showcased including the fabric selections (waves from painted shibori, small dots, black and white reverberating wings, purple lines on the vase) and all the stitched details: hand embroidered Xs, french knots, and outline stitched, in addition to the free motion spirals, waves, and zig zags using a lovely mix of threads shown below (Perle Cotton, 40wt and 50wt threads). 

Tomorrow I roll the dice and start a new Dice Composition! You can follow my daily progress on my Instagram feed.